More on Prop 8 Lies

The LA Times reveals the various lies the Yes on Prop 8 people are employing to scare people into voting for their hate law, and debunks them all.

I Just Can't Shut Up

Change we can Believe In!

Do Not Discard Brain.

The danger of Certainty.

Readers of Who Hates Whom might recall the conclusion, which reviewed various conflicts worldwide and found only one thing in common: certainty. Certainty that one god, culture, language, political or economic system, or miscellaneous dogma is right and best allows believers to see everyone else as other, and therefore lesser. And that seems to be a fairly necessary threshold for megaviolence to begin. In short, "you're either with us or against us" is one of the single most dangerous ideas a human can hold, in any culture, anywhere, any time.

Early voter has vote stolen by "voting" machine.

Joe the Plumber's information illegally obtained. Whoever got into his records better prove the reason was legit, and if not they better be punished. I don't care what side of the political divide you are on, privacy is privacy!

Ah, More Ranting

Do I ever get tired of ranting? Yeah, actually. I'm really tired. I can't wait until November 5th.

Mark Evanier on ACORN. The Brad Blog on ACORN. Ex-ACORN worker explains himself. "A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to impersonate another voter at the polls."

Will shows what makes a true Democrat. *sigh*

Airport Security is a sham, a theater that doesn't actually make us any safer.

Um. Ok.

The Spiral of Silence. I've apparently violated it, and now I'm persona non grata.

Colin Powell speaks the truth.

Prop 8 of California

I guess I'm not done with the subject yet after all. Here's the lies that "Yes on Prop 8" people have been spreading to scare people into voting for their hate law:

THE LIE: Four activist judges ignored four million voters.
THE TRUTH: Voters were far from ignored. Proposition 22, which originally made same-sex marriage illegal, was at the center of the court case. The California Constitution has not been this carefully examined since interracial marriage was made legal in 1959. Three of those four judges were appointed by Republicans.

THE LIE: Churches can lose their tax-exempt status.
THE TRUTH: Churches have the right to preach whatever they believe, and deny marriage to anyone on any grounds. This does not affect their tax-exempt status at all. Prop 8 would do nothing to protect this right any further.

THE LIE: Schools will have to teach about gay marriage.
THE TRUTH: The State of California does not control curriculum about marriage. They mandate that children are taught about the financial responsibilities of marriage, but not about what marriage is; that is completely up to the school and the parents. Parents have the right to remove their children from class any time they would be taught something about health and families that the parents disagree with. Prop 8 would do nothing to protect this right any further.

THE LIE: Prop 8 ensures religious freedom.
THE TRUTH: Considering some churches allow same-sex marriage, Prop 8 would actually take away a religious freedom. The judges in the court ruling took extra steps to ensure that freedom of religion was preserved. Prop 8 would do nothing at all to ensure religious freedom.

THE LIE: Prop 8 ensures free speech.
THE TRUTH: The court ruling did nothing to free speech, and neither would Prop 8.

THE LIE: Prop 8 means less government.
THE TRUTH: Prop 8 is an amendment to the California Constitution that dictates what a marriage is. It actually means that the government is more involved in our lives.

Even worse, the proponents of Prop 8 are trying to extort money from companies that have contributed to Equality California.

I think Eric and I may have to contribute to No on Prop 8, just to fight the hate.

To My Sister

You say you don't read my blogs. That's cool. I don't care who reads my blogs. They are my way to get my words out of my head before I explode. And the neat thing about them is that I can say whatever I want and no one has to read them. I'm not forcing them down your throat by arguing them at a family dinner. I'm not constantly emailing them to you. I'm not shouting them at you in the street. They just sit quietly in this corner of the 'net, ignored unless you choose to read them.

And yet you made a point of claiming that I was forcing my beliefs on you. Funny that. I don't recall even talking to you more than a couple of times in the last ten years, and that was mostly to say, "Hi, how are the kids?" And I have worked to keep my politics off the family blog, because I know you disapprove of my opinions. Pity you don't have the same respect for me.

You claim I insulted your beliefs. You claim I insulted the military. Show me where. Please, by all means, e-mail me and quote me exactly what I said that's so insulting to the military. I'm angry at the military's mission, I think our armed forces have been misused and abused by the current administration, but I don't recall ever insulting the military the way you imply I do. Frankly, I'm offended by your implication. Apparently any questioning of the current political policies is offensive to you. THAT is offensive to me.

You claim I have venomous hatred. Excuse me? What was that comment you made toward me if not "venomous hatred"? Pot. Kettle. Black.

As for Proposition 8, which started this whole argument... I think I know plenty more about it than you do. For instance, I know B and J, two gay men who have been denied the basic right to "the pursuit of happiness" because religious people have decided that B and J are perverse and that any attempt on their part to get the same rights as other married people is "inflicting their perversions" on the rest of society.

Frankly, sister, get a clue.

There are real people being affected by this. Proposition 8 is based in hatred and fear of the unknown. If God didn't mean for people to be homosexual, he wouldn't have made them that way. It's not a choice. Do you really think anyone would CHOOSE to be gay, knowing he might be beaten and killed for it? Seriously? If you do, you need to get your head checked. Homosexuality is genetic. And if God made the Earth, he also made homosexuality. So, what, exactly, was His intentions with them? A loving God wouldn't torture his children, but your beliefs say that that's exactly what he's doing. I don't worship that God. I never will.

Proposition 8 is the Anti-Miscegenation Law of the current century. And it's exactly as moral as those previous laws. Perhaps we'll need another Loving v Virginia to clear this up, but I hope the people of California have enough love of the Constitution of the United States and the rights of people to live their lives that they soundly defeat Proposition 8 at the polls. It is an attempt to constitutionalize hate. That's ALL it is. Any freedom-loving person will vote against it.

You claim that Proposition 8 will prevent some horrible scenarios of churches being forced out of tax exempt status and your children being indoctrinated in schools to accept the gay lifestyle. You are attempting to prove a negative. By banning gay marriage, you plan to prevent these future things which may not happen at all. I have an idea! Let's ban having children! That will prevent war! Your logic is the same. You've set up a strawman... things that haven't happened yet... and are telling everyone that those things will happen if Proposition 8 isn't passed. BULL. Stop lying to yourself and everyone else.

Churches will go on as they always have, and court decisions will protect them as they always have. Parents will always have the right to teach their own children what to believe, and children will pay attention or ignore as they always have. Teachers will go both ways, and the arguments will always be there. Gay marriage isn't the end of the world, anymore than interracial marriage was. Did the world end in 1967? Perhaps it did, for you.

Whatever. I'm done with this topic. If your state chooses to pass this hate law, then I'll be severely disappointed in the state and forever disgusted by the church that poured so much money into supporting a hate law. You can celebrate that future children will be "protected" from the evil gays, but I'm guessing that it will all be there anyway, just hidden away and forbidden... more enticing to examine, more painful to endure if genetically inclined. I can only imagine the number of people who will be hurt by this abomination if it passes. I suspect you don't care at all about them.



Lastly, I don't expect you to read this. It's here, on my blog. I'm not going to direct you to it, I'm not going to force you to read it. If you read it, it's your own lookout. If you get angry, tough. I didn't make you read it. Unlike you, who posted your hate in a family blog that I thought was supposed to be about family events, not politics. At least this blog has the distinction of being the place where I spew most of my "venomous hatred", so you should know better. I didn't expect to get slapped across the face in the family blog. Perhaps you should get your own blog to post your politics in, huh? Unlike you with my blogs, I would probably read it even though I suspect I'd mostly disagree with you. Because, unlike you, I actually DO respect other people's opinions enough to listen to them.

Just leave it off the family blog, ok?

ACORN Speaks

YouTube Video explaining ACORN. If you are convinced that ACORN is perpetuating voter fraud, watch the video. If you still believe it after watching the video, you are either hopeless or a hardcore Republican who hates the poor.

A Poem For The Election

This is from The Digital Cuttlefish:

Of course there are Christians, of course there are Muslims,
And Atheists, Pagans, and Jews
Supporting McCain or supporting Obama—
Supporting a spectrum of views—

Of course there are numbskulls, and ignorant pinheads
Whose views are incredibly dense,
And of course they reside on both sides, red and blue
Of the nation’s political fence

It gets to the point where we almost expect it—
Perhaps it’s what humans just do—
We forget these are merely the vocal extremists
Whose numbers, in truth, are quite few.

These salient images seen in the media
Show us ourselves at our worst
But just look around, and you’ll see something different,
And not what it looked like at first:

The people who back both McCain and Obama
Are people like you and like me
And most are intelligent, thoughtful and kind,
And like us, they don’t like what they see.

This silent majority, not in the news,
When confronted with ignorant hate
May decide to combat it, or maybe ignore it,
Or challenge them to a debate

And sometimes you’ll find that these ignorant cowards
Back down when you call out their bluff
So… if you’re like me, and you’re sick of the lying,
Decide that enough is enough!

And remember, the ignorant liars can shout
Until all of their faces are blue;
When you get in that booth, and you pull shut the curtain…
The one with the power is you.

You might want to watch the video in that link as well. It gave me hope that the truly bigoted McCain fans are in the minority.

And, if you are like me, sick of the nasty rhetoric... pass the poem and link along.

I'm an Acorn Small And Round...

Voter-Fraud Fraud.

Former US Attorney David Iglesias "is astounded" that the fake ACORN investigations are "being trotted out again."

Iglesias, who has been the most outspoken of the fired U.S. attorneys, went on to say that the FBI's investigation seemed designed to inappropriately create a "boogeyman" out of voter fraud.

McCain to ACORN: You Are "What Makes America Special".

His name is not Joe, and he's not a licensed plumber.

Not Photoshopped

Political Garbage

I'm very interested to see if this account of McCain at a resort is truth or myth. I'm betting myth.

ChicletsMom directs us to a Fark Thread that is not for the weak. Of course, Fark in general isn't for the weak.

Is it time for A New New Deal? Goodness knows the infrastructure DESPERATELY needs work.

Rossi trying to avoid testifying. Why? Is he guilty? Lazy? It shouldn't take more than a few hours. And he'd be better off proving himself innocent than letting people think he's crooked (innocent until proven guilty doesn't mean a thing in popular opinion). Unless he is crooked, and not just a whiner.

Anti-Drug Ad? No...

Rant Rant Rant

I'd prefer an elite president.

An Election Video (warning, strong language at the end).

More about ACORN and the ridiculous raids on their offices.

The Republican Voter Fraud Hoax.

A comment about the state of the nation.

ACORN Rant - Damned if you Do, Damned if you Don't

ACORN is not my favorite organization. Early in their existence, they were extremely careless and hired morons who made up names to put on voter registration forms, because ACORN stupidly paid those morons by the registration. D'oh! They now pay people by the hour.

The organization has reformed and gotten better at what they do, which is register the poor and otherwise disenfranchised to vote. They only register them: they do NOT, as an organization, force people to vote or vote using the registrations they turn in. THIS IS IMPORTANT. THEY ONLY REGISTER PEOPLE TO VOTE.

Recently, there's been some buzz about ACORN being "dirty" and "cheating the system" because they have turned in false and duplicate registrations. But here's the problem with that charge. THEY HAVE TO TURN IN EVERY REGISTRATION, even if they know it's false.

Most states have laws for organizations that register people to vote that require those organizations to turn in every single registration form. This is to prevent, say, a Democratic organization from pulling out all the forms that the voter has registered as a Republican and dumping those forms while turning in the rest. That event has actually happened... only it was a Republican group that dumped any form that didn't register the voter as Republican.

As an aside: I think it should be illegal to require a party preference to register to vote. I live in Washington, where you don't have to put a party at all, which is the way it should be. If you didn't have to put a party, the registration dumping wouldn't be as serious a problem.

Ok, so, ACORN wants to register people to vote. They know they'll get some fake and duplicates. So when they spot fake and duplicate registrations, they flag them and send them separately to the voter registration office. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? The job of the voter registration office is to check that voters are legal and to finish the registration process, so if ACORN is legally obligated to turn in all registrations, it only makes sense to make the job of sorting them easier for the voter registration office.

HA! Not in Republican-world! In Republican-world, if you attempt to get out the vote by registering people, you apparently must be PERFECT at it. You must be able to magically determine when someone is lying about having already registered (or determine if they just forgot, as well). You must be able to magically determine if a registration is fake BEFORE IT'S WRITTEN. You must ONLY turn in perfectly valid registrations, despite being required by law to turn in EVERY SINGLE REGISTRATION FORM you collect. So, in Republican-world, unless you are a super-magical person, you shouldn't be registering people to vote.

Because ACORN is now being investigated for turning in false and duplicate forms.

Forms that they FLAGGED as being possibly false or duplicate.

Flags that the voter registration office IGNORED because it was too much effort for them to actually do their jobs and check the forms.

But apparently it's ACORN's fault for obeying the law. This is the logic Republicans are using. ACORN is damned if they do: they turned in the registrations as required by law and even flagged the possible fake ones. ACORN is damned if they don't: if they threw away the false registrations they would be breaking the law.

So what's the solution? Republicans would (and do) say that ACORN should just give up the effort. Only people who go to the voter registration office and register themselves should vote. Never mind that ACORN is fighting years of racism and ignorance to get people to understand that, yes, they can vote and they need to be registered if they want to vote. Apparently that effort should be abandoned because it's not perfect.

The whole ACORN story is being misreported and misrepresented by the media. And moronic people are buying into the "ACORN cheats" lie. I'd like to see the same people who are criticizing ACORN take the same amount of money and the same people and do a better job. My bet is that none of them would even do half as well. And most of them wouldn't even be able to do it at all.

McCain's "Health Care" Plan

John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid. So, if you want to lose Medicare, vote for McCain.

Rants

When Palin was mayor of Wasilla, her police chief fought hard to make sure rape victims had to pay for forensic kits. Alaska has a high rate of rape, and charging the victims for the investigation discourages them from reporting the crime. As one nurse put it, it's like raping them again. CNN also covers the story. Palin may be physically female, but her attitude about women is positively medieval.

Who are you calling a Maverick?

How America Treats Her Veterans.

Diebold van has McCain sticker. Yeah, real classy. No doubt their voting machines are totally objective. Uh-huh. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you in Arizona.

Reason on puppycide. Because fully trained police officers on drug raids are clearly terrified of Jack Russell terriers.

DJ Coffman's "Will Draw Anything" covers Dubya's Deserved Fate.

Obama, the Norwegian Connection

A story about Obama from 1988. If you know Norwegian, the original is here.

No Bailout

Hey look! A Congresscritter who is right about the bailout!

And Boing Boing directs people to a Subprime Mortgage Primer so you can understand what is happening.

Various Rants

Alaskan Women reject Palin.

Sarah Palin's political opinions.

If idiot conservatives can make fun of Al Gore inventing the internet, then we can certainly make fun of John McCain inventing the Blackberry. Al Gore did a LOT more to help the invention of the 'net than McCain did to help the invention of any tech at all.

Which party is better for the economy? Slate looks at the numbers.

Political viewpoints linked to fear. "...subjects who were more fearful were more likely to have right wing views..."

McCain on Spain fails mainly in the brain.

So true, it's not really funny.

The group that "hacked" Palin's e-mail are already notorious.

For the election: Voter Suppression Wiki covering incidents of voters being forced off voting rolls or intimidated into not voting.

All charges dropped against journalist arrested at RNC, apparently for the crime of being a journalist. Check out the video at the bottom of the post showing peaceful park-goers being arrested for no apparent reason. During political conventions, it's illegal to exist in the same city as the convention.

Phone Poll

I don't usually answer phone polls, but I got a call just now and decided to play along and see what happened. It was a quick poll... the pollster did NOT identify who they were working for until the end of the call.

I was halfway expecting a push poll of some kind, but the questions were simple and straightforward.

She first asked if I planned to vote in November. I said yes.

She then asked which candidate I preferred, and listed both candidates, McCain first then Obama, with their party affiliations. I told her. She then wanted a range of how likely I was to vote for my preferred candidate. I told her.

Then she asked which of the candidates for Washington State Governor I preferred, listing Rossi first then Gregoire, with party affiliations. I told her. She then asked for a range of how likely I was to vote for my preferred candidate. I told her.

At the end of the call she told me the poll was being run on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and was not affiliated with any candidates. I said, "OK" and she thanked me and ended the call. Huh.

Normally I hate getting any unsolicited calls, but this one was interesting to me at this point in my life. I would've been more interested if it had been the Republicans calling, but you can't have everything. I do wonder about the poll... how many people, where they got my name and number, where I can see the results. But it was something. I don't normally go out of my way to participate in elections beyond the odd blog ranting and, of course, voting. But hey, it was just a poll.

White Privilege

Concrete examples of white privilege. Via various folks.

Political Rant

If you make less that $161,000 a year, you don't count.

Snohomish County Republicans should be ashamed. It was strange, I was at the Fair, and I walked by both the Republican and the Democratic booths a couple of times. The Democratic booth was busy, with lots of people and interested volunteers. The Republican booth had two older folks behind the table, and one woman in a scooter talking with them about how disgraceful the Democratic booth was. And all along, they had these disgusting anti-Obama things? And the Democrats are disgraceful? The Republicans need a mirror, and they need to really spend some time looking in it.

TPM on Palin, the single most unqualified candidate ever for Vice President, who hails from the incredibly politically corrupt state of Alaska (home of Ted "remodel my house for free and I'll do you political favors" Stevens).

This questionaire proves that Palin is an idiot. Look at question #11:

Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

Point the first: the pledge of allegiance wasn't written until the late 1800s, and not adopted until 1942. Point the second: The phrase "Under God" wasn't added until the anti-communist craze in 1954. The Founding Fathers likely would have been disgusted by a loyalty oath like the pledge. Palin is a moron who doesn't even know her own country's history, and she wants to be the Vice President? Please tell me she's just a nightmare that will go away soon.

Lemons to Lemonade. The community responds after anti-Obama grafitti is etched on a car.

A federal court has blocked a beef producer from testing all their stock for Mad Cow disease, arguing that it would be unfair competition for larger producers. In other words, people would love to have safe beef, but larger companies don't want to have to test meat. "The Bush administration says the low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease." Ok, so terrorists are pretty darn rare. That means we should only screen 1% of people who get on planes? The Bush Administration: dedicated to making you less safe!

2843 barrels of petroleum were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina. Idiots who claim there weren't any spills are either ignorant, or lying to you.

The Yankees will kick you out of the ballpark if you try to use the restroom during "God Bless America"? That's another reason to never root for the Yankees.

Asterism sums up Iraq. If you ignore my other links, at least check this one out.

Republican Police State

Hullabaloo reports. Do I have to make the obvious comparison? These sort of tactics are appropriate for a third world dictatorship, not for the United States.

$250,000 a year = Not Rich?

Slate looks into it.

Governor Palin: Inexperienced and Corrupt

Via Evergreen Politics.

Also, Washblog has more on Palin, including this bit:

Governor Palin’s sister and her very nasty divorce.

She married an Alaska Trooper, Mike Wooten, and after they split up she and the family filed 25 separate complaints against him over a 10 month period. According to Halcro, 24 of the 25 were dismissed.

The 25th?

Wooten has acknowledged illegally killing a moose in 2003...which the Governor’s father butchered...after which the meat was shared with the rest of the family...including the not-yet-Governor and her husband.

So, she eats illegal moose meat, then helps her sister file a complaint against the person who killed the moose? That really must have been one nasty divorce.

And The Bradblog points out that Rove himself declared a more experienced governor unfit to be Obama's Vice President running mate. So Rove must hate Palin.

McCain and the Draft?

Does McCain want to reinstate the draft, or was he just not paying attention?

Torture

According to Bush, McCain was never tortured in Vietnam.

Losing Season!

Yay! The Mariners are now guaranteed a losing season!

...

There's always next year.

Elite?

To my surprise, USA Today has it right:

McCain, who has portrayed Obama as an elitist, is the son and grandson of admirals. The Associated Press estimates his wife, a beer heiress, is worth $100 million. Obama was raised by a single mother who relied at times on food stamps, and went to top schools on scholarships and loans. His income has increased from book sales since he spoke at the 2004 Democratic convention.

Gee, I wonder if McCain ever has depended on food stamps? McCain claims Obama is an elitist? McCain can't even remember how many houses he has. He claims that only people who have over $5 million are rich (so Obama, whose income is below that, is actually middle class by McCain's elite standards).

Worse, McCain has a nasty temper, and continually refers to being a POW whenever anyone criticizes him. I can imagine it now... a delicate stand-off with North Korea, and McCain starts shaking his walker, yelling, "You darn Koreans get off my lawn, I was a POW, you have no idea what I've been through!" Um, no thanks. I'd rather have someone with their marbles intact leading the country. Frankly, McCain is less qualified than Obama, if only because McCain's best years and best thinking are well behind him. We're in the 21st century now, let's drop relics like McCain and his brand of war-mongering conservatives.

Taxes

Here's the bottom line from the Washington Post:


If you make more than $111,000 a year, you want to vote for McCain. He'll give you bigger tax breaks. Everyone else (over 60% of taxpayers) should vote for Obama, who will give people who make LESS than $111,000 a year bigger tax breaks.

Republicans only benefit the already rich. They want to preserve their power and money. Democrats try to make the world a better place for everyone.

However, as it was said in 1776: "But don't forget that most men without property would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor." People will still vote Republican, even when it's clearly against their best interests.

Four Years

This blog has existed for four years... and still hasn't really found it's stride. It's mostly a rant blog, with occasional other topics. But hey, four years.

Cindy Best Watch Out

Cindy McCain injured by firm handshake. She'd better watch her husband. John McCain cheated on, then dumped, his first wife when she was injured. Of course, he was cheating on his first wife with Cindy, so she probably knows better than anyone else that she's got to keep an eye on him.

Iraq Is A Disaster

Boots on the ground: Enemies with Benefits. Why the surge "worked". Or rather, why it's set us up for a huge fall.

The Drug War

What's really sick about this drug war story is that this happens daily. The only reason it made CNN is because the victim this time was a white mayor. The drug war is a farce, turning police into jackbooted thugs who break into innocents' homes and murder (and are murdered) based on false evidence.

Minor Ranting

Comparing party games to FISA and data overload. You can draw conclusions based on preconceived notions given enough data.

Wow, the DHS hates the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

What's so hard about that? Why can't we be secure in our persons as well as secure as a nation? Why does the government have to steal our computers and data to keep us secure? What ever happened to real police work instead of blunt-force "kill them all, God will know his own" tactics? Are we really so scared of the boogeyman that we're willing to spit on the Constitution? What's happened to America?

ComiCon: The Musical

It was pretty jerky on my browser, but YMMV. This was a fun little number, so go check it out!

1776

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Allowing the Government to Spy on Us

King George and the Telecom Corporations want the right to spy on you, and the Democrats are so spineless they are about to roll over and give it to them:

The provision granting amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, Title VIII, has the exact Orwellian title it should have: "Protection of Persons Assisting the Government." Section 802(a) provides:

[A] civil action may not lie or be maintained in a Federal or State court against any person for providing assistance to an element of the intelligence community, and shall be properly dismissed, if the Attorney General certifies to the district court of the United States in which such action is pending that . . . (4) the assistance alleged to have been provided . . . was --

(A) in connection with intelligence activity involving communications that was (i) authorized by the President during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on January 17, 2007 and (ii) designed to prevent or detect a terrorist attack, or activities in preparation of a terrorist attack, against the United States" and

(B) the subject of a written request or directive . . . indicating that the activity was (i) authorized by the President; and (ii) determined to be lawful.

So all the Attorney General has to do is recite those magic words -- the President requested this eavesdropping and did it in order to save us from the Terrorists -- and the minute he utters those words, the courts are required to dismiss the lawsuits against the telecoms, no matter how illegal their behavior was.

Call Obama: tell him to speak out today, not wait until it passes and then complain about it. 866-675-2008

Call Hoyer: tell him to pull the bill. 202-225-3130

Call your Representative: tell him or her to remember their oath to defend the Constitution.

Hat tip to Garrett, who is as angry as I am that Congress is giving up our rights to King George.

More Drilling Doesn't Mean Cheaper Gasoline

Will More Drilling Mean Cheaper Gas?

But there's a flaw in that logic: even if tomorrow we opened up every square mile of the outer Continental Shelf to offshore rigs, even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best. A 2004 study by the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that drilling in ANWR would trim the price of gas by 3.5 cents a gallon by 2027.

Is 4 pennies a gallon worth the cost and environmental damage of off-shore drilling? Uh, NO. Duh.

More Republican Values

Racist button for sale at Texas Republican Convention. I guess this election will bring out the worst of them. Curious George Obama t-shirts, Sock Monkey Obama, and now this. Do these people even realize how racist they are, or are they just stupid?

Not Mine

He's NOT my Commander in Chief, and he never will be.

In college I had a friend who couldn't stand Bill Clinton, and complained bitterly about Clinton right up until the day he was sworn in as President. When we asked my friend why he stopped complaining, he said that because he belonged to the military, Clinton was his Commander now, and it was wrong to criticize his superior officers. As we didn't belong to the military, we were free to criticize and complain.

Voting Republican

Rants About People

Obama released his birth certificate to combat the Republican lies about him. So, when is McCain going to release HIS birth certificate (proving that he wasn't born in the US)? Did George W Bush ever have to release his? Reagan? Clinton? Nixon? JFK? Why must Obama prove he's American when no other candidate has been held to that standard? Could it be? Republicans are racist?

John McCain, Elistist Golfer. Oddly enough, the McCain site disabled commentary on their golfing items.

John McCain, Flip-Flopper. He's such a maverick, he's become a maverick from being a maverick.

John McCain, Family Man. He's so into family that he dumped his first wife, who patiently waited for him while he was a POW, because she'd been injured in a car crash. Of course, he cheated on her first with his current wife. Republican family values!

Ann Coulter, Vote Fraud Felon. This person should be behind bars.

Various Political Rants

This is almost enough to make me eat at McDonalds. Almost.

Fox "News" equals gullible. Seriously, if they can't even do basic fact-checking, they don't deserve to call themselves a news channel. Only an entertainment channel would run a story as poorly-sourced as that one.

McCain would continue Bush's illegal wiretapping of US citizens. He's also been caught lying about Katrina and New Orleans. But then, Republicans like liars, I guess, or we wouldn't have Bush and Cheney in the White House. The Ten Commandments don't apply to Republicans in Republican-world.

Soldiers turning to self-harm to stay out of Iraq. It's happened in every war, but it's happening more now.

How to Lobby.

"Papers, please!" 97-Year-Old woman unable to vote now thanks to voter ID laws in Arizona.

Little Brother

You can download it for free, or order it from Amazon.com. Whatever you do, just READ IT. The ideas and problems in the book are not far off. The situation is possible in our lifetimes. Knowledge is power. Read it.

Then the world changed forever.

We felt it first, that sickening lurch of the cement under your feet that every Californian knows instinctively -- *earthquake*. My first inclination, as always, was to get away: "when in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." But the fact was, we were already in the safest place we could be, not in a building that could fall in on us, not out toward the middle of the road where bits of falling cornice could brain us.

Earthquakes are eerily quiet -- at first, anyway -- but this wasn't quiet. This was loud, an incredible roaring sound that was louder than anything I'd ever heard before. The sound was so punishing it drove me to my knees, and I wasn't the only one. Darryl shook my arm and pointed over the buildings and we saw it then: a huge black cloud rising from the northeast, from the direction of the Bay.

There was another rumble, and the cloud of smoke spread out, that spreading black shape we'd all grown up seeing in movies. Someone had just blown up something, in a big way.

There were more rumbles and more tremors. Heads appeared at windows up and down the street. We all looked at the mushroom cloud in silence.

Then the sirens started.

I'd heard sirens like these before -- they test the civil defense sirens at noon on Tuesdays. But I'd only heard them go off unscheduled in old war movies and video games, the kind where someone is bombing someone else from above. Air raid sirens. The wooooooo sound made it all less real.

"Report to shelters immediately." It was like the voice of God, coming from all places at once. There were speakers on some of the electric poles, something I'd never noticed before, and they'd all switched on at once.

"Report to shelters immediately." Shelters? We looked at each other in confusion. What shelters? The cloud was rising steadily, spreading out. Was it nuclear? Were we breathing in our last breaths?

This was a book that I could not stop reading until I finished it. You may find it the same way, or you might not like it at all. But whatever you do, go read it.

Terrorism?

Pakistan's ambassador to Norway Rab Nawaz Khan claims, "Terrorism is carrying out an act that draws strong reactions. Muslims across the world are insulted by this cartoon, and therefore it is an act of terrorism."

I submit to you that Rab Nawaz Khan's statement drew a strong reaction from me, therefore by his own definition the man is a terrorist.

Though I'm more inclined to think of him as an idiot.


Terrorism is an act that creates terror. If Muslims across the world are seriously terrified by a cartoon, they really need to pull themselves together. I somehow doubt that Khan is speaking for the majority of the Muslim world, though. I suspect that most Muslims are made of sterner stuff.

My Cousin Barack

His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, is my eighth cousin in a direct line from my own ancestor Jonathan Singletary Dunham. My maiden name is Laura Dunham. We're both daughters of the Dunham Clan. Stanley Ann Dunham spent some time living in the Seattle area, only a few miles from where I grew up. So there's a second connection there. Neither connection is particularly strong, but ever since I first learned of those connections, I've had a soft spot for Obama.

I originally didn't expect him to win the nomination for president, and in fact would have encouraged him to NOT run, if I'd been in a position to discuss it with him. I wanted him to get more seasoning in the Senate. However, after watching him handle the primary campaign with incredible grace and poise, and watched as he picked strong people to advise him... then managed to gather both support and inspiration, my initial thoughts changed and I accepted his run as solid.

At the same time, Clinton ran a "business as usual" campaign, reaching into a Rovian bag of dirty tricks against Obama and refusing to admit that her vote for the war in Iraq was a mistake. She steadily lost my support while Obama never faltered. However, I would have still voted for Clinton in the general election and therefore didn't want to fully support either candidate until the whole thing was settled.

Today, Senator Clinton gave a graceful and powerful concession speech that almost made up for many of her earlier missteps. As she has now suspended her run and endorsed Obama, I think it's acceptable for me to finally say that the best birthday present anyone could give me on January 20th 2009 would be seeing my cousin Barack Obama sworn in as the President of the United States of America.

The Price of War

The Backdoor Draft is taking a toll on our military. In short, people who enlisted for a time in the Army are being called back because no one in their right mind would sign up to go to Iraq right now. If the current administration were responsible adults, they would have already called a general draft to prevent overtaxing our military. But Bush is a war deserter and Cheney never served, so of course they'd rather just murder our troops with multiple deployments rather than do what needs to be done or stop their war profiteering adventure in Iraq.

And yet, people still are stupid enough to want to vote for McCain (who has voted with Bush 100% of the time) in the general election. Morons.

On Clinton and McBush

I'm both relieved and saddened that Clinton is conceding the primary contest to Obama. I would have loved to see a female president, but Obama is someone I can actually feel good about voting for, for once. And Clinton was digging herself a mighty deep hole of mud that made me like her less and less as the primary dragged on.

I would have happily voted for Clinton, right up until she started badmouthing Obama. At which point I would've voted for her with disdain, right up until she declared that my state doesn't count because it's a caucus state. At which point I would've voted for her with disgust, right up until she started talking about assassination as a factor in the nominating process. At which point I would've had to battle my beliefs to cast a vote for her... though I would still vote for her just to try to make sure we don't get four more years of McBush.

What scares me, badly, is how many Clinton supporters claim they will vote for McBush if Clinton doesn't get the nomination. Those people apparently don't realize what party Clinton belongs to or something. Frankly, anyone who votes for McBush is either stupid or deluded. I suppose I could add "racist" to the mix, but I would include those people in "stupid" anyway.

Speaking of, Electoral Vote dot Com is back up again. It shows the most current polls on an electoral vote map so you get a nice visual representation of the stupid/deluded states (dark red).

Rant Rant Rant

Washington State Republicans want to repeal the 14th amendment.

It's bad enough when the war on drugs causes police to act like Fascist Thugs, but when they intimidate witnesses outside of the chaos of the drug war raid, that's getting really scary.

Health insurance in Massachusetts is required, and only 5 percent of the taxpayers aren't covered now.

I wish Republicans would just get out of other people's bedrooms. Can't they allow other people to be happy? Must they control every bit of society?

Blah3 points out the moment I stopped supporting Hilary Clinton. And why a lot of people are completely disgusted with Clinton even now.

Michigan Solution

Brilliant:

Some in the media are declaring the series over because the Boston Celtics have won four of the six games played so far. But I don’t understand why, with a series this close and hotly contested, anyone would want to shut it down before we play a seventh game and have all the results in. As anybody who follows the NBA knows, a seven-game series would be good for the league, and the added competition would make the eventual victor, whomever it might be, a stronger opponent against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals.

Paranoid Morons Win Again

Dunkin' Donuts pulls an image of Rachel Ray wearing a black and white paisley scarf because bed-wetting cowards seem to think the scarf bears a resemblance to a keffiyeh.

In and of itself, a keffiyeh isn't a bad thing. It's simply a headdress worn by some Arab men in certain cultures. But apparently the bed-wetting cowards led by Michelle Malkin are so scared that anything that resembles their vision of terrorism must be immediately banned and removed so they can live without (even more) fear.

I urge everyone who isn't afraid of terrorists to go out and buy black and white paisley scarves and wear them as much as possible. The Malkins of this world deserve to cower in their manufactured fear.

More Links

Snopes sets the record straight on more lies about Obama.

The false smile and the photographs.

Patriot Games by John Ostrander.

More Rants

Dreams from Obama's mother, my eighth cousin and a girl who lived in the town next to the one I grew up in.

I think June 7th should be celebrated heavily. I won't tell you how *I* plan to celebrate, it's not safe for work.

Personal pet peeve: children who haven't had their vaccinations being allowed in school, where they can kill children who HAVE had their vaccinations. Vaccines do not cause autism, and only a complete moron would continue to believe it after all the proof. And make no mistake, lack of vaccinations kills. But idiots still argue about it.

The Brad Blog argues against mail-in voting. I really don't agree with this, as I find I prefer my mail-in voting to going to some local church to vote, but the points made are valid and should be considered.

Disgusting shock-jocks tell potential jurors to lie. They claim they are simply trying to show how the justice system is unfair, but they've gone a bit too far by instructing their listeners how to vote if they get on a jury.

Racism is a disease, and the scumbags behind these shirts are terminally ill.

Boing Boing links to Reason TV: Mississippi Drug War Blues. Cory Maye, at home with his 18 month old daughter, was attacked in the middle of the night by men who didn't identify themselves. He hunkered down in a room with his daughter, and shot at the intruders, killing one of them. The intruders were police on a drug raid. Once again: The Drug War is stupid and must stop before more innocent people are killed.

Seven Insane Conspiracies That Actually Happened, including Prescott Bush's attempted treason. Like grandfather, like grandson.

An Iraqi blogger has been killed. Asterism reports as well.

Rants

Bush should be in prison. Preferably for the rest of his life. The only reason I don't think he should be executed as a traitor is because I don't believe in state murder.

Many vets can no longer vote due to Republican voter ID laws. Neither can Nuns and Students. Leave it to Republicans to make sure people can't vote.

Speaking of voting rights: Forgetting the 24th Amendment.

Ben Stein is a moron. He'd better lose his glasses, since they are the product of science, and thus (according to him) little better than Nazi tech.

Why I support equal rights, particularly for marriage. Remember, bigots refused to recognize mixed ethnic marriages once. The world moves on, people grow up.

George Bush and Oil Prices

Mark Evanier enters the wayback machine, and checks out an article from the 2000 election campaign in which George W Bush, oilman, promised to lower oil prices:

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude.

''I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply,'' Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. ''Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.''

Yeah, right. Thanks for nothing, Mr. Bush.

Links and a Rant or two

Regarding the Day of Silence at a local High School: "Wheres Are Special Day?"

America needs more students like Matthew LaClair. Thank you Matthew, you rock.

Proof of Voting Machine Errors. Pretty much all voting machines currently on the market are crap and should be dumped, the companies that made them and pretended they were secure sued into oblivion, and new laws put in place to prevent this kind of screw up from happening again.

McCain Health Care: pay your own way. And if you can't afford, then DIE. Only politicians need government paid health care. Like, oh, McCain.

Biofuel

Originally, biofuel was about turning agricultural waste, stuff that wasn't going to be food for anything, into fuel. How did we go from that to making fuel out of corn? My best guess, and this is pure conjecture with no facts backing it, is that as soon as subsidies for making biofuel came into play, people went for the easiest and cheapest biofuel to make: taking food and processing it into fuel. For biofuel to be useful, it has to be made out of waste material, not out of food.

I was a bright-eyed optimist about the possibilities of biofuel, but it seems like people can manage to screw up even the best ideas.

Voting Problems Already...

Brad Blog reports on problems with voting machines and poorly designed ballots in Pennsylvania.

Speaking of Sports

Yay! The M's are at .500 again! Yay!

Seattle Sonics

I honestly don't care a flip for the Seattle Supersonics. I've never been a fan of basketball, not when I played it nor when I timed it in High School. I enjoy the Seahawks and the Mariners, but I've never really cared about the Sonics.

However, I hope the city sues the butts off the current Sonics owners now that we know for certain they were lying, instead of just suspecting they were. They bought the team with the intention of moving it, and therefore purchased it under false pretenses. I hope the city sues the owners into the poorhouse. Not because I care about the Sonics, but because I don't think rich people should be getting away with lies like that to entire cities.

Perhaps we should sue Oklahoma City, too, for making the liars welcome. And the NBA for supporting the liars attempts to move the team from the city. Heck, maybe we can get enough money out of the various scumbags trying to move the team that we can start our own basketball league. Maybe even one that's actually fun to watch, instead of the crappy NBA egotist club.

Stupid Website Tricks

Joe Lieberman owes an apology to Ned Lamont for lying about him during the 2006 campaign. The FBI also owes Lamont an apology for discovering the truth before the election, but NOT telling the public that Lieberman was lying.

If you haven't heard of this one, Lieberman's website was hosted on a cheap provider that was quickly overwhelmed in the days leading up to the election. Rather than pay for a good provider, Lieberman claimed that the website going down was a conspiracy by his opponent. He then used that claim repeatedly in ads in the days leading up to the election, making it seem to the non-technical that Lamont was pulling a dirty trick. The FBI discovered the truth before the election, but the information was not released until now. Lieberman won the election, partly because of his lies.

A Few Links

Why voting can never be truly fair, Arrow's Theorem.

E-Voting is expensive.

Net Neutrality in a Nutshell: "do you want an Internet that operates like the one we have today, or one that operates like cable TV, where Comcast decides which content to carry, and offers it to you only in bundles of its own devising?"

Baseball Season! Duck Season! Baseball Season!

Yay. The M's won their first game. I can say they are undefeated for a little while longer.

April 1st

At the moment I have no plans to do an April Fools joke this year. However, I urge everyone to remember that the internet, which is usually fairly unreliable, generally becomes COMPLETELY unreliable at this time of year. Any item you read on April 1st, or that is dated April 1st, check the sources. If you can't find any sources, don't believe it.

This has been a public service announcement.

Massive Linkdump

Sequoia is the new Diebold. If voting machines cannot be freely examined by outside experts, they aren't voting machines. They are crap.

By now, everyone has heard about PZ Myers being barred from seeing a Creationist movie that he was tricked into appearing in. And you've all probably heard who PZ's guest was who managed to see the movie because they only kicked PZ himself out. But I couldn't not link to the story.

In a much sadder story, Peter David quotes the Bible after learning about a child who was murdered by her parents' "faith".

Simply clicking a link could get your home raided. The article says the FBI isn't bothering to record the referrer, which means some "prankster" could put the link up in a major forum and it would get tons of hits... I'm afraid clicking a link should NEVER be "probable cause" for a federally condoned home invasion and robbery.

Speaking of stupid things, the drug war... the Seattle PI has an opinion piece on marijuana and how many tax dollars go to waste fighting it.

The 5 Most Ridiculously Over-Hyped Health Scares of All Time.

Pastafarians in Crossville Tennessee got permission to put a Flying Spaghetti Monster statue on the Courthouse lawn. I want one! (A statue of the FSM, not a courthouse) Be sure to scroll down for pictures on how they made the FSM.

Republican administrations are bad for our soliders. Active duty military deaths under the last few presidents: Under Reagan (eight years): 17,201 (2150 a year average). Under Bush I (four years): 6,223 (1556 a year average). Under Clinton (eight years): 7,500 (938 a year average). Under Bush II's first six years: 8,792 (1465 a year average). If you are a soldier, you'd better pray for the Democrats to win, because you are more likely to live if they do.

More Iraqi Voices.

Thoreau reminds us that Iraq is not an intellectual exercise, it's a real war, and people are dying there every day.

As Obama's eighth cousin once removed (his mother was my eighth cousin), I find this article fascinating. "While family trees such as these throw up interesting links, genetically they are meaningless. While children carry half the genes of their father, cousins as far removed as Obama and Bush would have no more genetic link than someone they bumped into at random in the street."

Rants for Tuesday

Waterboarding is torture. Only a traitor to the United States would veto banning it. The traitor in the Whitehouse doesn't dare ban it, lest we put him in prison where he belongs for the rest of his miserable life. Every day that Bush is president drags our country deeper into the mud of his illegal and immoral activities. We should have impeached him five years ago.

Washington State has good government.

New Seven Deadly Sins. I'll note that 5-7 damns most of the Republican party. Of course, 1 and 3 damn a good number of Democrats, so it balances.

TSA Endangers Child. The TSA is a joke, and an annoying and dangerous one at that.

Go Norway! I've never been prouder of the name I married into.

For once, the voters win against the Parties.

I Don't Care

I don't care who wins the Democratic nomination. I really don't. I have no preference beyond some minor personality quirks. I think they both can do a fine job, certainly tons better than the man in office right now.

HOWEVER, the more the two candidates snark at each other and give fuel to the rethuglican strategists, the less I like the ones on the attack. I'm talking to you, Hilary. Cut it out, or you'll lose the support of people like me, who don't care about your inter-party stupidity and just want a competent President for once.

The Dog, the Cat, and the Giant Squid

With Laura obsessing over her new wiki, I guess it's up to me to post something here. So I present to you the heartwarming story of The Dog, The Cat, and the Giant Squid. (Thanks to the Milwaukee Time Lords for sharing this with their members.)

More Rants

Preaching Hate: Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, said, "God hates soft men" and "God hates effeminate men." ... "If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I'd rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end." People like this, who preach hate in church, are scumbags. If I were a member of that church, I'd be ashamed. The pastor advocates beating people for being polite. That's pathetic, and utterly unChristian.

I'm for abolishing all e-voting machines entirely, unless they are open source and regularly inspected by UN observers. This story is just one of thousands about how useless the current crop of voting machines are.

TSA thugs steal baby food because the amount the parents brought, thinking of all the possible (and likely) delays, was apparently too excessive. Time to disband the TSA and put something intelligent and actually useful in its place.

The Surge

So the government idiots claim that the Surge is working. They don't even notice stories like this about people driven from their homes. The reason the Surge appears to be working is because the religious communities are being physically divided.

Our government did this to the people of Iraq. And the scumbags in our government are actually PROUD of it.

Disrespect? Yup, Republicans...

House Republicans disrupt memorial service for Rep. Tom Lantos.

A representative dies. He has a memorial service. House Republicans start calling votes in the middle of the service to disrupt it. I don't really care who you are, this sort of behavior ought to be punished.

The Republicans, of course, claim it's the other side's fault: "WAH! They started it by promising to actually conduct business after the memorial service! WAH!"

Democracy Means Counting The Votes...

So the Washington State Republican party once again attempts to stop the counting of votes as soon as they get the result they like. Just like in the widely disputed governor election (which was later determined by hand-picked conservative judges to be conducted properly, despite the whining of the Republican "leadership") they thought they could just stop the counting.

Huckabee isn't having any of it.

At least it's the Republicans eating their own instead of trying to steal the governor's mansion.

Maybe someday the rank-and-file Republicans will notice that their so-called leaders are scum and fix their party... back into what it used to be, instead of the party of dirty tricks and warmongering.

Your Government...

Your Government Hates You, an itemized list with links to the crimes of the current regime.

935

Bush Administration lies 935 times, at least. Remind me again why we haven't impeached the murdering traitor... oh yeah... because the Democrats HAVE NO SPINE.

Impeach NOW. Bush and Cheney and all their cronies deserve prison time for the US Troops they murdered with their lies.

Why There Should Be A Recount

Ars Technica:

The fact that optical scanners leave a paper record is totally irrelevant if a random audit of the results is not mandatory by law after every election. And in New Hampshire, there are no mandatory audits. As I've said before, mandating a paper trail without also requiring post-election audits is like buying a security system for your house and then not turning it on.

Ron Paul and his supporters may be a bit loopy, but they are 100 percent correct in insisting on some type of audit of the NH results—not because Hillary hacked the vote (I currently think there are better explanations for the results than vote hacking), but because such audits should always occur as a matter of course. Again, when you use an electronic voting system, you must audit the results if you want to have confidence in them.

...

In a truly democratic election, the burden of proof is on the state to provide evidence of the election's integrity. This sentiment is behind the idea that ballots should be counted under the watchful eyes of the public's representatives. So elections are held to a much different standard than criminal proceedings, where the burden of proof is on the one who brings a charge of wrongdoing.

Right now, in the absence of an audit of the New Hampshire results, the state has not met the requirement that it prove to the public that the election was fair. This is what the fuss is about. New Hampshire does not have the manual audit requirement that is necessary to prove that an election was fair, so that state's ballots were effectively counted in secret by closed-source machine code. When ballots are counted in secret and it's up to the voters to prove that the election was rigged when they're surprised by the results, that's not the kind of democracy that the Founders had in mind for us.

Go read the whole thing. Then demand a recount. Our democracy is worth being certain.

Why Rant?

Why should only politicians get good health care?

Conservative website blames liberals for their inability to learn how to program to make their website better. This really takes the cake.

If we aren't hearing from "peaceful Muslims", then why is a peaceful Muslim blogger in jail? If he never said anything, he wouldn't be a threat to the hard-liners, would he?

I was all ready to be angry at John Edwards for an insensitive response to Hillary's tears when Stranger at Blah3 set me straight. Thank you, Stranger. I'm still an Edwards gal.

The final post of mil blogger Andrew Olmsted.

And for something light-hearted: The Baby Primary.